Thursday 7 September 2017

Why do we always start the practice of Yoga Asana from the right side?

Sometimes, when we keep doing the same action again and again, the action becomes a habit and we forget the reason why we have been doing it in the first place!! And so, it came as a surprise when one of my students asked me this question leading to some introspection and ultimately this blog.

Why do we always start the asanas from the right?  From a cultural perspective, it is not just Yoga practice but most of the action in India is started from the right as it is considered auspicious.  We enter the temple or any auspicious place by placing the right leg first.  We start any workshop with the right hand. Even when we want to hand over something to someone we do it with the right hand.

Anything done with the left hand is considered inauspicious in India and I clearly remember being scolded by elders when I inadvertently used my left hand for anything important.

According to Tantra and Yogic system, there are three fundamental subtle energy channels or Nadis within us; Ida, Pingala and Sushumna. In my earlier blog: "Reciprocal Inhibition …Secret to improve our flexibility", I have mentioned about polarity in nature at the physical level. Ida and Pingala represent such polarity within us at subtle energetic level. Ida is cooling, Pingala is heating. Ida flows through the left nostrils and Pingala flows through the right nostril. Ida is known to activate Para-sympathetic nervous system thus creating calming effect, whereas Pingala is known to activate sympathetic nervous system thus driving activity. Ida is feminine in nature, whereas Pingala is more masculine. We are all made of both feminine and masculine qualities. These are not just gender differences but differences in attitude. Masculine is more outgoing, whereas feminine is more inward and receptive. We all know that anything that is gentle or kind is considered as female quality and anything that involves force is considered as a male quality. This duality is symbolically represented in the form of Ardhanareeswara of Shiva and Shakti, where left side is Shakti and right side is Shiva.

Wondering what has all this to do with doing on the right side first?!! As the right side represents the outgoing, masculine, or activity side, it makes more sense to start all our actions with the right side and then later end it with feminine or calmer side which is the left side. As the primary purpose of Yoga is to calm our mind at the end of the practice, it makes more sense to end all our practices with the left side.
Apart  from this subtle idea from energy point of view, even at the at the physical level, the way the ascending and descending colon of our large intestine is arranged in the human body, twisting on the right enables easy elimination of waste.  Perhaps the colon too is engineered in line with our energetic system! 


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Friday 15 July 2016

Why should I come to the Yoga class on time?

Many people ask me these question: “Why do you close the door and not allow any late comers to enter the class? Why should we come to the class on time?” Everyone has a reason for coming late. Every reason sounds good and valid J “I came in early but couldn’t find parking place”, “My vehicle did not start on time due to some issue”, “My house lock didn’t work properly”, Some honest reasons as well: “I woke up late”, “I snoozed my alarm more number of times than I always do” J etc., etc.,
Whatever be the reason, we do not encourage late entry to the class. Let us understand the reasoning behind it.

Why to be on time for Yoga class?
Before we go further let us think about a few questions: What is the mindset of the person going to attend an important interview or meeting? What is the mindset of the person going to meet his/her love after a long time? What is the mindset of a person attending a new job on the first day? What is the mindset of a person all excited to watch a movie first day first show? In all these cases, why do we always ensure that we are on time for our appointment?  What changes at other times? When we want to begin something new in our life, it could be a job or relationship, we are more eager to start and learn more. This mindset is called “Beginner’s mindset” in Zen philosophy. When I think of all these, I feel that time is not a physical but a mental entity.

Now let us ponder on what our mindset is when we come to the class on time as against that of the one where we come whenever we feel like it. Our mind gets into an enormous amount of preparation when we commit to be on time. The first criteria in order to learn something is commitment. Just reiterating to ourselves that we will be on time brings in commitment. This opens the mind for better learning by making it more receptive and alert. It is indeed a beginner’s mindset, just like in all the examples I gave earlier. Famous artist Pablo Picasso once said “Every child is an artist.The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up”. Beginner’s mindset is like that of a child, always eager to learn new things. Once we start learning and become more confident we become carefree, and lethargic. This is when learning ceases.

Apart from this, the first five minutes of the class is spent on preparation, that is., sitting quietly, focusing and connecting with our breath, chanting omkara and prayer. All this is helpful to get composed for the class. Whatever be the mindset before coming to the class, this preparation at the beginning is essential to get focus on the practice. Mind becomes calm and enables to have a single minded focus on the practice of the day.

Now think about what happens when you enter the class and put your mat while everyone else is trying to get composed for the practice. Not only will you not be able to get focused but will disturb everyone else’s attempt too.



Coming to class on time has to therefore become a part of our culture such that everyone can benefit from the practice. As such, the more I think of it, the more it makes sense to enforce the rule of not allowing any latecomers for practice more strictly. Don’t you agree?

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Friday 10 April 2015

“The 2015 Good Friday Weekend Yoga Retreat” by Madhu Subramanian

[Note: This is the blog written by one of the participant of our Yoga Retreat]

“A sadhak sees himself as beginner every time, every practice is to him, a fresh experience.”
“Self- responsibility ends dependency on motivation from outside.”: Vinay, Founder of Yogavijnana, who, together with his team, led the sadhana for a 16- odd group of people that had gathered in the late evening at a serene place at Madagondanapalli in Krishnagiri District on April 3, 2015. Architects, marketing and IT professionals, seasoned Yoga teachers and also a child had arrived from various areas of Bangalore and Bellary to spend the next three days with each other doing and talking Yoga.

Yoga hall at Yoga Nikaya
Madhagondhapally, the village in Krishnagiri District, TN where Yoga Nikaya stands is located at about 22 km from Attibele Junction on Hosur Road. It is reached by a two or three hour drive from Bangalore. Driving past the TVS Motors and finishing the last five kilometer stretch on a somewhat indistinct road winding through green fields up to the gates of Yoga Nikaya, first- time visitors may discern the fluttering orange flag on the temple tower of Sri Obuleshwarar Temple, the small temple that stands alone a few hundred meters away, before the retreat itself.

Set in an eight- acre land Yoga Nikaya was conceived as a haven and a place of retreat from regular life providing a sheltered space amidst beautiful nature for self- development, particularly through the practice of Yoga. Yoga Nikaya is run primarily on donations from its visitors: school students, families, yoga aspirants and astronomy buffs alike, charmed by the observatory on the premises or the welcoming serenity around. Amar. S. Sharma, the resident astronomer is a founder of the Bangalore Astronomical Society (BAS) and a willing guide to all who make their way there to observe the heavens.

Meditation hall at Yoga Nikaya
Yoga Nikaya itself is a cluster of cottages, halls and dormitories set amidst a profusion of flowers, creepers and bushes bowing in the wind. The Yoga and Meditation Halls probably form the heart of the place. The Meditation Hall built below ground level is a cool and solemn space adjacent to which swaying plants peep through the glass wall at sadhaks probing their psyche and life under the benign smile of Sri Ramana Maharishi in picture. The Observatory structure stands close to the living spaces and houses an astronomy library, a telescope and the classic winding stairs up to the heavens.

As part of the daily schedule, meditation started at 5 am and was continued uptil 6:30 am with a milk break inserted. This was the first activity of the day. This helped bring the group into a receptive frame of mind for the prolonged 6:30- 9 am asana session. Under the brisk, yet friendly and cheerful guidance of Vinay, every participant reached the end of their practice feeling utterly invigorated and happy.

Practice session
Karma Yoga or community service, important hours during the day, saw the group engaged in weeding work in the nearby field, watering plants or cleaning the premises.
Meals at the Dining Hall at 9 30 am, 1 pm and 7 30 pm were a delicious and wholesome vegetarian fare. The group was encouraged to use meal- times for silent awareness although towards the end, noise rather than silence reigned for everyone had got to know each other and had become eager to share experiences. After dinner, discussions and short walks under the moonlight through the meandering brick paths, it was lights- out for the group at 10 pm.

             “Rejuvenation through asanas, after asanas.”
            “Asanas serve as warm- ups for themselves.” 
Propitiating Sage Patanjali, the great compiler of Yoga, whose idol graced the Yoga Hall, Vinay started the asana sessions. The required props were brought in beforehand. By emphasizing experience over boot- camp rigor, Vinay invoked a spirit of openness to organic growth into the effort in the Hall, a sense of can- do hung all over.
Practice Session

Among the asanas done were Sarvangasana with wall, Twisting with chair, Prasaritha Padothanasana and Halasana. A Trataka session took place on the second evening.

The group also learnt a few rejuvenation poses that were, in some cases, complementary asanas to the ones previously executed- this was to understand that one could relax oneself without getting down to the Shavasana (the corpse pose) each time.

Talk by Vinay Siddaiah
Another decided highlight of the retreat was the decision to focus on helping with progressing from intermediate levels of practice for the students, working with them at a place where there were yet to attain perfection. Props were hung around on the walls, their use demonstrated and followed by the individual’s practice. Light, informa
Talk by Amar Sharma
tive talks by Vinay on the subjects of Ayurvedic Doshas and Principles of Yoga through the day brought a broader spiritual- healing perspective to the retreat as did the hour with Amar, whose passion for astronomy is infectious, regaled everyone with astronomical numbers in “The Universe” talk at the Yoga Hall.

Group Picture
The limited size of the group brought in a focus that was to the benefit of the participants. Moreover, the routine’s simplicity and smooth execution was a result of meticulously planning by the Team Yogavijnana which was highly appreciated all around.


It was a gentle, motivating retreat. The group made their way out at around 4 pm on the Sunday on to the main road leading to Hosur Road back to Bangalore, all sending a wish up to the blue skies above Nikaya for a repeat of the experience soon.

About the Author: Madhu Subramanian is a yoga practitioner from Bangalore. She is interested in Ayurvedic pyschotherapy and the applications of Yoga Philosophy in the workplace.

Monday 9 March 2015

Benefits of Yoga Practice...Holistic picture

Yoga is becoming increasingly popular in recent times. We hear about many health issues being resolved by Yoga and many benefits the practice offers. In fact the first thing a practitioner of Yoga asks is – “What are the Benefits of Yoga practice”. I have heard many superficial answers to this and many that focus on those benefits. Practitioners want to know whether it reduces weight, cure ailments, improve concentration, reduce stress etc. Yes, it does all that and much more. In this blog I have tried to give a more holistic picture. I wrote this article for an internal magazine of GE and sharing the same here.

The principal benefit of yoga is that it builds more self awareness. From this awareness, sprouts many physical and mental health benefits as positive by-products. Most of the commonly faced chronic physical problems such as back pain, neck pain, knee pain are due to lack of awareness of the right usage of one’s body.  Wrong posture, while sitting (especially for longer duration), walking, running etc, is the root cause for any such pain. Constant practice of Yoga helps in detection and correction of one’s posture and frees the practitioner from most of the chronic physical problems.I have explained this point in detail in my earlier blog: Misunderstanding the Pain

Effective breathing during Yoga practice helps nourish the cells with proper nutrients, making the practitioner energetic and strong. The various movements and postures of the Asanas benefit in toning and massaging internal organs, thereby releasing muscle tension and improve flexibility. All this will create a sense of freeness in our physical body. Freedom in physical body creates more freedom in one’s breath. Freedom generated thus will directly impact in calming the mind. With a calm mind one is able to concentrate better, reduce anxiety and stress levels and go deeper with-in oneself, which in turn increases one’s awareness.

This increased awareness of self leads to questioning of one’s lifestyle thereby bringing natural changes in habits and diet. A sensitive body accepts and rejects food as it wants without any external force. This awareness naturally leads to normalization of body weight.

 As famous Yoga guru BKS Iyengar said “Health is a state of complete harmony of the body, mind and spirit.” Awareness achieved though Yoga practice will bring this complete harmony and great health. 

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Tuesday 3 June 2014

Yoga tips: Should we pull up knee cap or not?

In many Yoga classes I was asked to pull-up my knee cap (also called locking the knees), during most of the asanas particularly in standing asanas. Pulling up of knee caps involves strengthening inner quadriceps muscles so that knee caps move towards hips. This is considered to be very good to protect knees. If it is supposed to be very good when why are we questioning whether we should do it or not? I have explained how our whole body is connected in my earlier blog Misunderstanding the pain. Keep this concept in mind as we proceed further. 

Well, it may be true that it is good to pull up knee caps but whenever I tried to do it my entire awareness was in and around my knees. My whole focus was on keeping that pulled-up position intact. When Yoga is all about developing complete body awareness then how can we localize most of the awareness to one area? Is this the right area to focus on? Instead I tried to focus on stretching the toes of my feet and pushing heel down. What this does is it creates more feeling of connectedness with the ground. Due to which it aligns all the bones and in the process will automatically pull up knee caps just to the extent it is healthy for knees without hyper-extending it. By pushing the heals down we will start working from our core and this will spread the awareness without localizing at one point. Try this but you may need to sensitize your feet and toes for that. For most of us because of constant usage of shoes it becomes really difficult to control the movement of our toes. Try activating them by touching, rubbing, etc.

So stretch your toes, spread your feet in order to ground yourself more in to your heels. This process will pull up the knee caps without you putting any extra effort. But is it always required to pull the knee caps up? What if we don’t do? Well remember that there is no one rule in Yoga. I would like to recollect some parts of famous philosopher, J Krishnamurthi’s statement in this context “I maintain that Truth is a pathless land, and you cannot approach it by any path whatsoever, by any religion, by any sect.  Truth, being limitless, unconditioned, unapproachable by any path whatsoever, cannot be organized; nor should any organization be formed to lead or to coerce people along any particular path. The moment you follow someone you cease to follow Truth.” Yoga is all about going in search of truth/nature/reality. So don’t get biased by any conditions/rules/guidelines/instructions in Yoga practice. Feel free to explore and enjoy the journey. 



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Previous related blog

Friday 31 January 2014

It's all about journey and not the destination

Journey and Destination
When I was a kid, my family and relatives used to ask for their time pass “What do you want to become when you grow old?”, teachers used to ask “what do you dream to become in your life” and my manager asks “what are you short term and long term goals”. Somehow I was always not too sure what to answer.  At times I was guilty for not knowing the proper goal of my life. It is said that everyone is born for a reason, but how do I know, why I am born? If I was assigned the goal for my life when I was born, I would have saved many sleepless nights thinking about it.

Point is we are always told that we need to fix on a goal/target and go towards it. In fact, my Yoga journey started with the same intention and I was behind achieving the right posture. What is right is what teacher told me or that which looked good. I was too much dependent on my teacher to tell what is right and what is wrong. I was pushing myself to get the right asana. I spent many sleepless nights due to extreme pain, dreaming that the process will end soon. Thinking, when will I become extremely flexible and permanently pain free? This never happened.

During my mountaineering
days
What changed my approach was my experience in mountaineering. During mountaineering we were putting ourselves to such extreme situations that looked insane at times. Still why did we do it? Initially, I thought we were doing all this to feel good when we reach summit. We felt good, but there were times when we did not reach the destination. During those times, can we say we wasted precious time in our life attempting to climb? No, we became better at climbing. So, why not focus on climbing which is the activity in the present moment as our focus? This is something that can always get better. Enjoying the journey was the only way I could enjoy mountaineering as it was disturbing to think what might happen. I applied these lessons in to my Yoga practice.

I stepped back from pushing myself to observing what I am doing. I started observing every small things that leads to so called perfect asana. I stopped at every step in between to see how much better I can do. Instead of achieving perfect looking asana, my focus changed to make every action perfect. Without worrying about what I did earlier, or how much I need to do today, I was just observing whatever I was doing. I became experimental in my approach - Not standing straight where I am supposed to stand, breathing fast and slow, just to see what happens to my actions etc. My feelings became my guide, telling how far I can go and how I am doing. It was such a pleasurable experience and I was more connected with my practice. Is connecting mind with our actions and being in present, not Yoga about?

I finally understood that Yoga practice is not about reaching any destination in the form of a perfect asana but rather it is about enjoying the journey of getting there. This approach has made a lot of difference in my practice and even to flexibility level, which I am not interested anymore. 

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Wednesday 15 January 2014

Sense of Identification!

Pseudomonas bacteria launched an assault on my left lung to cause Pneumonia and that lead to my hospitalization for six days. Fourth day just before I was about to sleep, I coughed to only live through an excruciating lung pain and at the end of it I almost had the experience of death for a brief period. I went beyond my individual mind and I saw my individuality. Soul made a solemn presence and that experience I would call it as the “knowledge of the knowledge”. I had a sight, contemporaneously, of the life, tussling at closer quarters with death and death scuffling with life’s umpteen lifeless identities. And “Yes” I perceived death. Life was not heedful about the potential consequences rising from the short-lived-experience-based death, but life was circumspect about the death of those hard earned identities! Life was favouring its own self, all passionately, one-sidedly, to a level, it forgot to ask whether those identities were true or not?  What mattered to life were mere identities. For death nothing mattered. Fire in its association burns the quality and the quantity of an entity, without any preoccupation and so does death! I was a mute testimony to both.
            Life as an individual, perhaps, presumptively, acutely accumulates death-denting distinctions. Mortal man’s randomly constructed, so called “immortal-identities” and “death-denting distinctions” or in simple language “identities” are but in reality, children’s sand made houses!
           Probably or generally, dreams end meaninglessly. But, on the contrary, experiences definitively end meaningfully. My experience in the hospital, meaningfully, restored confidence about my staunch belief, that, life succinctly, is only a small cause and effect theory principle. Wherein, one’s desires are the causes to the effect called pain or pleasure. We all incessantly yearn for something and try and extract only pleasure out of it and if we attain the desired goal, we go to the extent of deeming that those trivial pleasures as happiness! In true sense, happiness transcends the limitations and drawbacks offered by pleasure and pain. Harking back, human beings are just stuck in this cycle of desiring-doing-experiencing-identifying. Desire something, do that, experience that and identify yourself with that! Such a vicious purposeless perennial life cycle! I have no qualms with people who call this process purposeful and sensible! Subject beliefs are wholesomely respected!
If on one hand my hospital experience reassured my belief system, and made me feel fortified about the path I have chosen and toeing upon, on the other hand, it helped me to dwell deeper intellectually into the concept of identity!
         At all times, back of my mind, I have been seeking an answer to one question, “What are these Identities”, which we all form steadily, that  that over a certain period we claim ownership over the same and wrap into it as if for the safest tier called Z+ - security!
            How are these identities formed? When are they formed? Why are they formed?  What is that feeling of “little indisposed”, about losing them? Do identities have the huge immense potential to really protect individuals during their harder times of life?
Let us assume that I am a dandy being. My external appearance being of greater significance to the greatest possible degree, I decide to buy distinguishingly unique attire. I here ‘desire’ to buy. Desire leads to an action. Action leads to a reaction called pleasure (if possessed as per the requirement) and pain (if not possessed as per the requirement). Rarely someone can be a super stoic person to not react to the situation and such people are out of our equation of discussion, as they are either mentally super-normal or mentally abnormal!  For now, on the off chance, let me ideate that I obtained out of all struggle the best unique attire in the town, now psychologically, I identify myself with the newly gotten dress. I say with a sense of pride, “it is my dress”. I get absorbed in the dress. A sense of indivisible whole is acquired.
            Let us now revisit those questions-
·     How are these identities formed? At the outset, we desire and a beginning has been made!
·    When are they formed? After a desire is materialized! Sometimes, even otherwise!
·  Why are they formed? I identify with what is materialized or what is to be materialized and “formation of identification” is the evident result!
·    What is that feeling of “little indisposed”, about losing them? I don’t like to lose what is mine and it is as simple as that! Sometimes, I don’t want to lose what is not mine! For instance, I found a costly Parker pen on the street or I stole one. It is not mine, but I still don’t want to lose it as I know the value of a “Parker Pen” and also I have attached a value to the “Parker Pen”. By now, I call it as “My Parker Pen”.
·   Do identities have the huge immense potential to really protect one individual during his harder times of life? Some can and some cannot. At the end of the day it also depends on the knack of an individual to utilize the identities to one’s luxuries and conveniences.
The above example might appear a bit too smattering in its way to comprehend identification. Let us core out to know more. Each human being dons definitively a few roles, may it be of a great-grand-son/daughter, grand-son/daughter, son/daughter, neighbour, student, customer, uncle/aunty, husband/wife, father/mother, colleague, boss, citizen, grand-father/mother Etc., in day to day life. Each of these roles becomes perfect in every respect only when he identifies himself with it in an exhaustive manner. As under a pledge towards a particular cause, if one acts with sense of fulfilment towards the role’s completion, his identification with the same goes from strength to strength. These identifications are in terms of knowing one’s own strength and thereby becoming more responsible, productive and eventually meaningful towards one’s own self and towards the society.
If we see the previous example, it was from the context of identifying oneself with an object and the present one is in the context of an individual or with one's own self.
However, the dichotomy of life is here, from the spiritual life dimension per se, wherein, everything is about letting go and nothing is about getting bound. To elaborate, factually, these very substantive identifications of one can entangle him with the knots called bondages.
Now let us attempt to drive a point home through the whole activity.
These identifications come with a tinge of peril is immensely displeasing! These identifications are those which don’t allow us to die peacefully. These identifications, for life puts into a state of recurrent rough-and-tumble with death. Life as an individual isolatedly mulls over these identifications and ponders over the arrival of death and the departure of those endeared identifications!
If one scrutinizes, ‘Life otherwise, in other words is a collection of identifications’. With that the realness, what is so erroneous in telling what I have and a deeper connection with the same, especially if I have garnered it out of great difficulty and greater sacrifices?
“I own a house”, “I own a plot”, “I own a car”, “I own a weapon”, “I own a costly diamond”, “I won a very intelligent debate”, “I possess costly  ornaments”, “I am so and so” and “I own all that, that is better than the most people have and I am the best and perfect”. I being best and perfect is solely my radically distinctive identity and it is equal to none.
Importantly I identify with all that I own and if I lose them, I am lost.
Above all, “I own not to disown”.
When I own not to disown is the existential fact of many people, how wise it is to let go or even to think about it? Let us take it up in the next blog!
Some food for thought before I wind up- “If in deep-sleep I am unavailable to access to the most vital things I think of my life, and my own world is nullified to me, is there not a problem with my precious possessions? Its face value is not something to be revisited? What sleep does to our most invaluable acquisitions daily; death does it once for all”.
“Let those things be with you, but you don’t be with them”.
“Go beyond sleep, transcend death”.
Think differently! Come with us in search of reality!